Recent Reads: One Mystery, one Classic

As I mentioned in yesterday’s Sunday Salon post, I’ve been in a “book review funk.” But I’ve still been reading, and over on LibraryThing I dashed off a few comments about my two most recent books. I also finished my June short story collection. Since I’m off work this week with time on my hands, I might actually write a proper review!

This is the fourth Matthew Shardlake mystery set in Tudor England, and I found it just as good as the others. In this book, Matthew vows to avenge a friend’s murder by finding his killer. He learns of a previous murder, sees a pattern, and realizes he’s on the hunt for a serial killer who is likely to murder several more people. There are plenty of grisly murder scenes in this one. Matthew’s sidekick Jack Barak, and his friend and apothecary Dr. Guy Malton, figure prominently in this story as well, and provide interesting subplots. There’s only one book left in this series, and I’ll be sad when it ends.

In one of Edith Wharton’s later novels, the author explores issues of morality and sexuality in the context of a mother-daughter relationship. Kate Clephane left a loveless marriage and was denied further contact with her young daughter Anne. She escaped to the French Riviera and moved among society there. Kate and Anne are reunited many years later. Anne is now a young adult, and surprisingly welcoming. She introduces Kate to post-World War I New York society, where much has changed from the world Kate once knew. Anne and Kate’s relationship blossoms, but is severely tested when one of Kate’s “old flames” arrives on the scene. For the first time in many years, Kate has to think about someone other than herself, and sort through several moral dilemmas. Wharton is masterful at showing the constraints women faced in those days, and resolves the conflict in what was probably the only way possible. Wharton is one of my favorite authors, and I really enjoyed this book.

7 thoughts on “Recent Reads: One Mystery, one Classic”

Karen, these were two very different reads, for sure. I’m not sure if you’ve read the Shardlake series but they are very good (and I don’t consider myself much of a mystery reader). But Wharton … well, she’s just special. I’ve read several of her earlier novels and have been collecting everything published as a VMC. So I thought it was high time I started reading them, and she did not disappoint!